In Washington, World AIDS Day is observed with a large red ribbon on the North Portico of the White House. In Sydney, Australia the Opera House is lit in red and the sky filled with red fireworks.

By 6 p.m. Saturday, Sheila Fuoco is winding down in her Terrytown home, feeling tired from her day.

"Physically, my body is wearing down, and my body is starting to not want to work," Fuoco said.

Fuoco said she was 29 and eight months pregnant with her second child when she found out she'd contracted AIDS from her husband of four years.

"My private HMO company in 1987 called me up and said, 'You have AIDS,' right over the phone. I was like, 'What are you crazy? I'm married,'" she recalled of the day she was notified that her life would be changed forever.

Doctors weren't sure her unborn son would survive.

"They said he'd probably be still born or die within the first year of life," Fuoco said.

Her son, Chuckie, as she calls him, is 25 and living as a model and actor in California.

"In the beginning people made us feel ashamed that we got it, people were saying that it was a curse," Fuoco said.

Now, Fuoco said she sees every day as a gift from God.

"Am I afraid to die? No. Do I want to die now? No," Fuoco said. "All I want now is peace."

While Fuoco has grown to accept her circumstances, she still hopes to see more people educated.

"I feel that more people are getting infected because more people believe that with all the new drugs out and everything that they can live a long time," Fuoco said.

While prevention tools like HIV testing, access to condoms and risk reduction programs have helped to decrease the spread of HIV, Fuoco wants to see a vaccine to keep people from contracting the virus.

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